Tuning molecular dynamics by hydration and confinement: Antiplasticizing effect of water in hydrated prilocaine nanoclusters

In glass-forming substances, the addition of water tends to produce the effect of lowering the glass transition temperature, Tg. In a previous work by some of us (Ruiz et al., Sci. Rep., 2017, 7, 7470) we reported on a rare anti-plasticizing effect of water on the molecular dynamics of a simple mole...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ruiz Tabbia, Guadalupe Natalia, Combarro Palacios, Izaskun, McLain, Sylvia E., Schwartz, Gustavo Ariel, Pardo Soto, Luis Carlos|||0000-0002-2768-0013, Cerveny Murcia, Silvina, Macovez, Roberto|||0000-0001-5026-9372
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/177201
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/177201
https://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9cp01771b
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Chemistry, Physical and theoretical
Fisicoquímica
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria química::Química física
Descripción
Sumario:In glass-forming substances, the addition of water tends to produce the effect of lowering the glass transition temperature, Tg. In a previous work by some of us (Ruiz et al., Sci. Rep., 2017, 7, 7470) we reported on a rare anti-plasticizing effect of water on the molecular dynamics of a simple molecular system, the pharmaceutically active prilocaine molecule, for which the addition of water leads to an increase of Tg. In the present work, we study pure and hydrated prilocaine confined in 0.5 nm and 1 nm pore size molecular sieves, and carry out a comparison with the bulk compounds in order to gain a better understanding of the microscopic mechanisms that result in this rare effect. We find that the Tg of the drug under nanometric confinement can be lower than the bulk value by as much as 17 K. Through the concurrent use of differential scanning calorimetry and broadband dielectric spectroscopy we are able to observe the antiplasticizing effect of water in prilocaine also under nanometric confinement, finding an increase of Tg of up to almost 6 K upon hydration. The extension of our analysis to nanoconfined systems provides a plausible explanation for the very uncommon antiplasticizing effect, based on the formation of water-prilocaine molecular complexes. Moreover, this study deepens the understanding of the behavior of drugs under confinement, which is of relevance not only from a fundamental point of view, but also for practical applications such as drug delivery.